Long Beach tour will offer spots to view Pacific Green Sea turtles

LONG BEACH >> Pacific Green Sea turtles apparently enjoy navigating the currents along the mouth of the mammoth San Gabriel River.

They can be spotted lifting their heads above the water line — perhaps to get their bearing, or to check out the weather.

If they do, they may encounter the friendly faces of Eric Zahn or Taylor Parker, scientists who have been studying the Los Cerritos Wetlands habitat.

Traveling massive distances is second nature to the green sea turtles, which migrate along the Pacific from Southern California to Mexico, where they hatch their eggs. Locally they navigate the mouth of the San Gabriel River — a 2-mile stretch from Seventh Street to Pacific Coast Highway — and across the Seal Beach shoreline to the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge, according to Zahn, a science instructor at Cal State Long Beach.

Zahn and Parker are scheduled to host a walk along the San Gabriel River’s mouth on Sept. 7. Visitors can meet at First Street and the nonbeach side of PCH in Seal Beach at 8 a.m. On the tour, visitors will follow the river’s path to spots for viewing the turtles without getting into the path of cyclists and joggers.

Zahn and Taylor, owners and operators of the environmental consulting firm Tidal Influence, are considered experts of the wetlands habitat.

Both earned degrees from Cal State Long Beach — Zahn a master’s degree in science and Parker a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts — and both have worked at building the wetlands volunteers program over the past 10 years, helping to clear away debris and weeds in an effort to enhance the wildlife habitat.

The turtles have been the focus of interest for the two wetlands advocates, including attempts to get a better understanding of their population and efforts to learn why they travel through the San Gabriel River channel.

Zahn said students at CSULB have attempted to gauge the turtle population, with only limited success, partly because the turtles rarely surface in the area.

To date, they’ve counted about 10 turtles, he said, adding they are endangered and protected by federal law.

“Ten is a nice conservative number,” Zahn said. “They’re so mobile that it’s hard to tell.”

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Parker said there’s also no solid details on the “new neighbors,” as their Tidal Influence Web page labels the turtles.

That Web source surmises that a contributing factor could be the nearby Haynes Generating Station, which draws water from Alamitos Bay through the channel to cool the facility’s turbines, discharging the warmer water into the San Gabriel River.

“This elevated water temperature could be contributing to the area’s ability to support our population of sea turtles, but a clear answer is not yet fully understood,” the scientists say.

Parker added that they guess the channel is a safe haven.

“It could be protective because it’s in a rocky, lined area where it’s not easily accessible, and not a lot of predators,” he said.

Pacific Green Sea Turtles spotted along the Southland coast are generally just passing through, making the Los Cerritos Wetlands population quite rare, according to Zahn and Parker.